Journal Name: Legal Comm. & Rhetoric

Volume Number: 16

Abstract:

The defendant in a murder case is a selfish, immature lout who cheated on his wife, the victim. Should the lawyer attempt to minimize the bad qualities of the client, unearth good qualities to balance out the bad, or something else? Lawyers are regularly advised to present positive narrative portrayals of clients, to encourage decisionmakers to respond favorably to their client and allow them to prevail. But this approach does not acknowledge cases in which a narrative with a primarily negative client portrayal is the more persuasive strategy, and it may create pressure on lawyers to persuade in unethical ways. This preliminary study examines two examples of negative client portrayals from common-law jurisdictions in North American and Asia. The article argues that the use of primarily negative client narratives should be recognized and explored. The article offers some initial suggestions about when this strategy can be used and what persuasive mechanisms may be at work. The article also suggests that a more complex model of persuasive legal narrative should be adopted, one that accounts for the persuasiveness of negative portrayals by envisioning a continuum of client portrayals.

Additional Information: Winner, Teresa Godwin Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication